Open Bee Hive for Inspection…..Nov 2012

I have been feeding sugar water for two months in hopes of giving necessary food to tempt bees to fill the two empty frames in my top, of two, brood boxes with sugar. I opened the hive in Nov 23rd and found it amazingly clean and free of hive beetles and all bees docile and cooperative. Although the two frames were still completely empty with no activity, although they were consuming a quart bottle of sugar water every few days. Must be using to support the hive or other bees and yellow jackets stealing water. I rotated the entrance board to reduce the entrance hole from approx. 3inch to 1 inch for winter and placed spacers between inner cover and top cover to allow for ventilation during winter. I removed several frames from top brood box and looked down to bottom brood box and everything looked good and clean and full of bees. Noticed on the side of a frame from top brood box, what appeared to be a queen cell or maybe several together, with openings on top, as if queens may have hatched out. I did not pull any lower or other frames from top box to search for queen. So looks like winter is progressing without incident or problems. Plan to open hive again for quick inspection in Dec. Comments appreciated. Jimmy Earl Cooley 11-24-2012